Chicago Prosecutors Charge 4 More Men In Mumbai Attacks

CHICAGO (CBS/WBBM) — In less than three weeks, the federal government is set to put a Chicago man on trial as a terrorist – accused of providing material support for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, that killed more than 160 people.

Now, as WBBM Newsradio 780’s Steve Miller reports, the government has charged four new defendants.

The Chicago man set to go on trial May 16 is Tahawwur Rana, the owner of a Grundy County slaughterhouse and an immigration services business

Another Chicago man, David Coleman Headley, has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

On Monday, the additional defendants – Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqubal and a fourth defendant known only by the alias “Major Iqbal” – were charged in U.S. District Court with aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens and conspiracy to bomb public places in India.

None of the four new suspects just charged is in U.S. custody.

But now the government is directly accusing them, by name, and outlining their roles in planning the Mumbai attacks.

The indictment says all four were leaders in Lashkar, a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

One was accused of being a “handler” for Headley.

Others are accused of providing the cash to fund some of the reconnaissance work before the attacks.

The indictment says one of them showed Headley “a Styrofoam mockup of the Taj Mahal hotel,” one of the targets of the attacks.

The November 2008 attack in Mumbai killed more than 160 people. It was pulled off by ten men who attacked multiple locations in Mumbai, using guns, grenades and bombs.

Rana and Headley are also charged with involvement of planning an attack on the Jyllands Posten newspaper in Copenhagen, Denmark, after the newspaper ran cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. The attack never took place, but Headley also pleaded guilty to involvement in its planning.